NATO, Pentagon would love to get ahold of tech behind Bitcoin

(Cyberwar.news) The basis of bitcoin – blockchain technology – has many applications, like allowing finance firms to cut down on administrative costs and trade faster, while allowing nations like Estonia to securely track health records.

Now, the U.S. military, along with NATO, want to get in on the technology as well, reports Defense One. The Defense Department and the long-standing military alliance have both put forth requests for military-related apps that are built on blockchain technology, which is a decentralized digital ledger system.

The ledger is stored in multiple copies across a large group and changes are issued to all of them simultaneously and immediately, utilizing a mathematical protocol that renders the ledger tamper-proof. That in turn creates an immutable record of information, and since all have a copy of the data, records are still safe even if a few people are hacked.

Defense One noted further:

The two are looking at different implementations. The DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, wants to use blockchain to create a secure messaging service. The group recently put out a public request for pitches on the project, and wants a web or native messaging app to help secure communications between different departments and even potentially troops in combat. NATO is looking at more traditional uses—using blockchains to make military logistics, procurement, and finance more efficient.

Blockchain can be speedier than traditional messaging and data transfer systems. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the decentralized nature of the technology makes it far less appealing to hackers.

If “significant portions of the DoD backoffice infrastructure can be decentralized,” the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency [DARPA] writes, “‘smart documents and contracts’ can be instantly and securely sent and received thereby reducing exposure to hackers and reducing needless delays in DoD backoffice correspondence.”